A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

"Did the British Government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?"

"This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world."

I think there's a lot of truth in what they say. When Wen Jiabao, China's premier, visited the UK earlier this year, Gordon Brown (pictured above with Wen) set a target of doubling British exports to China in the following 18 months, from £5bn to £10bn, in order to help lead the world out of recession.

Britain's powerlessness - and the European Union's which made repeated calls for the death sentence to be commuted - reflects, in my view, its moral powerlessness. Quite apart from any other considerations, why would China heed the representations of western governments which are giving so handsomely to its forced abortion, one-child policy through their funding of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)? (Three months ago, the European Parliament voted against pro-life amendments to stop EU money being spent on coercive and sex-selective abortions.)

This is the China where earlier this year, Zhang Minan, a law professor at Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University and an expert on the the government’s population policy, told Reuters: "'They (the authorities) do have the right (to force abortions) ... " The same report interviewed a young Chinese woman, pregnant with four-month-old twins, who last February had been dragged into a maternity ward and had her belly injected with a needle in forced abortion.

The UNFPA's participation in China's forced abortion one-child policy is well-documented. Furthermore, when Colin Powell (a supporter of abortion) was US Secretary of State, the State Department verified the pro-life Population Research Institute’s allegations that the UNFPA was cooperating with China's coercive abortion programme:

“UNFPA's support of, and involvement in, China's population-planning activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion,” (letter from Colin to Congress, 21 July 2002)

The UK government gave over 40 million US dollars to the "regular funds contributions" of UNFPA in 2007 (the latest report available), about 10% of the total income China received in regular donations from over 180 countries worldwide.

So long as the UK, the US (under the Obama administration), and European governments eagerly fund, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, the brutalization of China's women and the forced abortion of their children, we should not be surprised if China airily dismisses our concerns about the execution of a drug smuggler said to have suffered from bi-polar disease.

A job in a registry office that conducts same-sex civil partnerships may not be for you. Don't open a hotel or a B&B if you think you will want to turn away certain sections of the community. And most of all, please don't become a pharmacist.

This is why Britain urgently needs the kind of leadership I noted yesterday in Spain.

" ... if the law goes as it is, we'll have to break it. This means we will be punished: fines, detention and maybe imprisonment ... "

The conscientious objection of parents to their children being provided with access to abortion is already being swept aside by the British government in schools in England and Wales, including Catholic schools.

It's essential that we do everything in our power to stop this situation getting even worse, by opposing the government's Children, Schools and Families Bill. The bill threatens both children and families as never before in our country. Once again I urge readers in Britain to please read our alert and act now by writing to Gordon Brown and your MP.

Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Thanks to Catholic leaders in Spain and from the Vatican, the world is in no doubt that there's a massive battle between life and death in Spain.

A huge rally in Madrid was led last Sunday by a veritable who's who of Catholic European leaders, against the Spanish government's legislation to make abortion available on demand, including without parental consent for 16 and 17 year-olds. Check the list below for cardinals, archbishops and bishops who attended the rally - from the Vatican, from Spain, from Poland, from Holland, from Germany, from Austria, from Portugal, from Italy and from France.*

The Daily Telegraphreports that Cardinal Antonio Rouco, the leader of Spain's Roman Catholics, spoke as follows about the Spanish government's plans to legalize abortion on demand for young people of 16 and 17 years without parental permission:

"Who denies to defend a human being so innocent and weak, already conceived but not born, commits a grave violation of moral order."

And last month Juan Antonion Martinez Camino, the spokesman of Spain's Catholic bishops' conference, told members of the Spanish parliament:

"This is a warning to Catholics, that they can't vote in favour of this and that they won't be able to receive communion unless they ask forgiveness ... They are in an objective state of sin".

In the meantime, back in England, our church leaders are not only failing to break their silence on government legislation in the Children, Schools and Families bill, the Catholic Education Service (CES), on behalf of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales, gives general support to compulsory sex education

Moreover, the CES (of which Archbishop Nichols was chairman until his appointment as archbishop of Westminster this year) welcomesConnexions into Catholic schools. Connexions is a government agency which is committed to giving schoolchildren, under the age of 16, access to abortion and abortifacients without parental knowledge or permission. Connexions' advisers are trained to tell young people that they can obtain abortion and abortifacients without parental knowledge or consent.

Through the Children, Schools and Families bill, the government not only wants universal sex education, but it also wants to use all state secondary schools, including Catholic ones, as centres for promoting access to contraception and abortion services. Not since the Abortion Act 1967 has there been such a determined effort to promote universal access to abortion.

Archbishop Nichols (as reported on the Bashing Secularism blog, which cited an interview in Standpoint magazine), appears to believe that British government policy means that Catholic schools have "retained their rights through the governing body that their sex and relationships education is delivered according to Catholic ethos and teaching". This is simply not the case.

The government has accepted all the major recommendations of the 2007/2008 report by the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group. The report's major recommendations include that:

"The Government's current review of SRE should ...

... [s]tate clearly that all schools including faith schools must teach all aspects of SRE within the context of relationships in an anti-discriminatory way; contraception, abortion and homosexuality are all legal in this country and therefore all children and young people should be able to learn the correct facts

... [m]ake explicit links to young people's advisory services and provision of contraception and sexual health services and demonstrate this by teaching young people how to access services"

* Here are the Catholic leaders listed as being present at last Sunday's rally in Spain:

England and Wales urgently needs Spanish-style Catholic leadership, to assist the pro-life movement in opposing the government's abortion plans for our children, rather than the Catholic authorities' co-operation with government policy which currently obtains.

During the past month, SPUC has written to churchmen and women throughout the UK concerning the Children, Schools and Families bill. I would urge readers in Britain to please read our alert and act now by writing to Gordon Brown and your MP.

It's interesting to note that John Lennon regarded over-population as a myth, as the video link below shows.

His view is supported by many leading demographers, including Dr Nicholas Eberstadt, who holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr Eberstadt has written a comprehensive paper on population questions entitled "Too Many People?".

Monday, 28 December 2009

Whilst in Australia for our son's graduation at Campion College, I had the pleasure of speaking with Archbishop John Hepworth (pictured right), the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and bishop ordinary in the Anglican Church of Australia.

I have no doubt that part of the impact of Pope Benedict's Apostolic Constitution for “former Anglicans to enter into the fullness of communion with the Catholic Church” will be greatly to strengthen Catholic witness on pro-life matters.

In a post today on The Anglo-Catholic, we can find a message from His Grace Archbishop Hepworth for Holy Innocents Day which bodes well for the Catholic Church. It includes the following:

" ... Our bishops have realised from the start of our separation from the Anglican Communion that it was a separation of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage must have a goal. Our goal was the healing of catholic disunity, that Anglicans had sought and then abandoned.

"There is great integrity in being a pilgrim. If the destination be holy, God sustains on the journey. We will not be rushed or stampeded. Nor will we falter. So in our waiting as the vision of our destination becomes clearer in the mists of our wandering, let us take clear sight of the martyrs who are our Octave companions. Their echoes are all around us, in the destruction of innocent life, in the failure of episcopal teaching, in the denial of the Christ Child’s godliness, in the transformation of love into hate, even within the company of those who bear His Name ... "

Please forgive my self-indulgence in highlighting the text above. As we prepare early in the new year to face "government legislation which threatens both children and families as never before in our country" in the Children Schools and Families Bill, the Catholic church in England and Wales urgently needs the kind of strong witness we see in the Archbishop's words, delivered with a welcome Aussie bluntness.

"Here is a truly human family: Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus. Here is a loving, committed couple, sharing side by side both adversity and joy. This is the first source of happiness: faithful, persevering love which bears its fruit through self-sacrifice."

And Dr. Rowan Williams (right), the archbishop of Canterbury, preaching yesterday at Canterbury Cathedral, emphasised the pre-eminent role of parents in the lives of children, saying:

"The message being sent out to children today was: 'We shall test you relentlessly in schools, we shall bombard you with advertising, often highly sexualised advertising, we shall worry you about your prospects and skills from the word go. We shall do all we can to make childhood a brief and rather regrettable stage on the way to the real thing, which is ‘independence’, turning you into a useful cog in the social machine that won’t need too much maintenance.' Parents should learn to enjoy their children’s dependence on them, instead of forcing them prematurely into independence."

Dr Williams is right to call on parents to assert themselves as their children's primary educators, saying they " ... should learn to enjoy their children’s dependence on them, instead of forcing them prematurely into independence."

My hope and my prayer are that both church leaders, immediately in the new year, and prior to its second reading in the House of Commons (provisionally scheduled for January 11), break their silence and speak out clearly and unequivocally against the Children, Schools and Families Bill - government legislation which threatens both children and families as never before in our country.

"Clauses 11 to 14 of the bill make sex education compulsory and set out the principles under which schools must teach sex education. The principles require that sex education 'reflects a reasonable range of...cultural and other perspectives' and promotes 'equality', 'diversity' and 'rights'. The bill also says that schools must 'have regard' to government guidance on how to implement the principles ... The bill reflects the recommendations of the Teenage Pregnancy Advisory Group's report"

And in the same statement I said:

"There can be no doubt the government will use the bill, if passed, to promote abortion in schools. The bill's principles will be used to ensure that pro-abortion propaganda dominates the content of sex education. Schoolgirls will be told that they have a right to abortion, that abortion is virtually harmless and that pro-abortion agencies provide good sexual health services. 'Equality' and 'diversity' will be used to suppress opposition to abortion. The abolition of parents' right to withdraw older children from sex education classes will ensure that no child leaves state schooling without having been brainwashed with an pro-abortion mentality."

In particular, it is incumbent upon the Catholic Education Service (CES) in England and Wales to reverse its general support for compulsory sex education. The CES (of which Archbishop Nichols was chairman till his appointment as archbishop of Westminster this year) should also stop welcoming Connexions into Catholic schools. Connexions is a government agency which is committed to giving schoolchildren, under the age of 16, access to abortion and abortifacients without parental knowledge or permission. Connexions' advisers are trained to tell young people that they can obtain abortion and abortifacients without parental knowledge or consent.

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Pat Buckley is calling upon pro-lifers to respond to a new consultation by the Irish Law Commission, which is suggesting that Irish law is changed to allow teenagers under the age of consent legally to access birth control drugs and devices, as in Britain. Please read Pat's post in full.

Adult stem cells have restored full vision in a man's eye damaged 12 years ago in a violent attack. Russell Turnbull (pictured), now 38, had ammonia thrown in his right eye, which resulted in almost no sight. He had tried various treatments but a stem cell transplant from his left eye has restored his vision to normal.

Sometimes media reports of stem cell treatments and cures fail to mention - perhaps deliberately - that the stem cells are adult stem cells, not ones taken from embryos. Not one single cure or treatment has come from destructive embryo research, yet there are scores of conditions in which adult stem cells have benefitted patients. There are no instances of any major medical advance achieved by abandoning basic ethical principles such as safeguarding the right to life.

Nicholas Coke, a boy from Colorado, America, has turned one year old despite being born without an upper brain, a condition known as anencephaly. In August I blogged on the similar case of Marcela de Jesus Galante Ferreira, a girl with anencephaly who lived for one year and eight months, much longer than most infants born with the condition.

Alison Davis of No Less Human, a group within SPUC representing disabled people, sent me her reaction to the news of Nicholas' first birthday:

"Nicholas Coke's achievement in reaching his first birthday despite having virtually no brain is not just a miracle for his young mother, Sheena. He is a reminder to the world that disabled people matter, that we can surprise you whatever the doctors say, that the doctors prognosis is not always right (indeed it is very often wrong), and that every life, however short or disabled is precious. Nicholas' mother explains that although he can do very little, by his very existence he has changed lives and brought many people to understand the value of every human being. Abortion prevents over 90% of anencephalic babies from giving the joy, hope and surprise to their families and others, that Nicolas has brought to so many. He encapsulates both the tragedy of abortion, and the joy inherent in every life allowed to be lived."

One online report of Nicholas' birthday is followed by readers' comments, which include comments in stark contrast to Alison's:

"It seems kinda strange to spend so much time and effort keeping this vegetable alive ... Even a pet would be a better subject of the family's affections."

"It's just a brainless piece of meat ... [T]hrow that worthless crap machine in a dumpster."

"He's not a miracle. That's a waste of money for the parents"

In the face of such anti-life hate, it is a tragedy when politicians fail to protect disabled children in their policy positions.

Monday, 21 December 2009

Sheila Jones, one of SPUC's most active regional officers, sent me the following message today:

Hi
My nephew Luke found this pro-life song and video on the baby forming in the womb on youtube, please have a look if you haven't already seen it, it's great.
Sheila

I agree with Sheila. It is great.

If, like me, you've not sent out your Christmas cards yet, or even if you have sent them, you might like to forward a link to this video with those on your Christmas card list as an extra Christmas gift.

Hugh O'Shaughnessy rightly reminded Guardian readers last Thursday that there is a very serious question as to whether Tony Blair is a Catholic.

Mr O'Shaughnessy's article cites Monsignor Michel Schooyans, one of the Vatican's leading scholars. Earlier this year, Monsignor Schooyans presented a masterly analysis of the political agenda of Barack Obama and Tony Blair at the plenary assembly of the pontifical academy of social sciences in Rome. He pointed out that Obama and Blair, with their anti-life, anti-family agenda, are seeking to undermine both law and religion respectively.

Given Tony Blair's well-known continued desire for high political office, it's important that the public and the Church keep in mind that, since being received into the Catholic Church, Tony Blair has been, very publicly, seeking to undermine the faith he purports to hold.

Saturday, 19 December 2009

Sadly the lower house of the Spanish parliament has passed the government's radical pro-abortion bill. The bill now goes to the Senate. If it passes the senate, it will return to the lower house for final approval, and then to the King for him to sign. It is reported that the Senate will agree to the law. This is despite the warning by Spain's bishops that those who vote for the law risk excommunication.

The position of the king is especially poignant from a Catholic perspective. Among his historic titles is "His Catholic Majesty" and "King of Jerusalem". He was born in exile in Rome during the pro-abortion regime which deposed his grandfather. Prominent Catholics are calling for him to withhold his assent from the law or abdicate temporarily, but this is regarded as unlikely.

Please pray for Spain, for Spanish unborn children and for Spain's governing class, that a miracle will stop this most unChristian law.

Thursday, 17 December 2009

Pope Benedict, in his regular Wednesday audience at St Peter's, has said:

"[I]n our own time, and especially in certain countries, we are witnessing a disquieting fracture between reason, which has the task of discovering the ethical values associated with human dignity, and freedom, which has the responsibility of accepting and promoting those values ... [T]he only 'equitable' laws are those that defend the sacredness of human life and reject the legitimacy of abortion, euthanasia and unrestrained genetic experimentation; the laws that respect the dignity of marriage between a man and a woman..."

An authentic education in human sexuality and the role of parents as the primary providers of that education are essential to establishing a pro-life social and legal culture. In contrast, the British government's plans for compulsory sex education would introduce children to a distorted view of sexuality and an adult culture of abortion. I'm sure that Pope Benedict's heart will be greatly warmed if the government's plans, contained in the Children, Schools and Families bill, are defeated before his visit to Britain in September The bill's second reading (first main debate) is scheduled provisionally for 11 January. Time is running out, so please read and respond to SPUC's campaign alert today.

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

Gordon Brown (pictured), the British prime minister, has told a homosexual magazine that the British government is working to have British same-sex civil partnerships recognised by the legal systems of all European countries. Mr Brown made the comments in an interview with Attitude magazine - the same magazine in which Tony Blair said that the Catholic Church should change its teaching on homosexuality.

European countries must resist Mr Brown's campaign to normalise homosexual relationships, if they wish to retain the right to set their own laws protecting the family. The campaign for homosexuality and for sexually explicit anti-life sex education is becoming more oppressive:

In January, Spain's supreme court ruled that parents do not have the right to opt out of "Education for Citizenship", the government's militantly pro-homosexual and anti-family schools programme.

In September, the European Parliament passed a resolution against a new Lithuanian law seeking to protect minors from sexualisation by society.

Last week, eight fathers have been jailed after refusing to send their children to sex education classes

As the late Pope John Paul II taught in Evangelium Vitae (para. 97), it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. The normalisation of homosexual relationships through legal recognition of same-sex civil partnerships serves to break that close interconnection. Such 'normalisation' leads directly to placing pressures on educationalists to give young people a distorted education in human sexuality and thus entrenches a culture of death, according to Pope John Paul II, in a new generation.

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

The Irish Supreme Court today rejected a request by a woman, Mary Roche, to be implanted with frozen embryos created during IVF. Thomas Roche, her estranged husband, had refused permission for the implantation. Mrs Roche's lawyers argued that the embryos were protected by article 40.3.3. of the Irish Constitution. The court rejected that argument.

Pat Buckley, Ireland spokesman for SPUC, told the media today that the court's interpretation was wrong and contrary to international human rights law:.

"The judges' interpretation of article 40.3.3 excluding human embryos from protection is wrong. This decision treats human embryos as if they are mere property, when in fact they are equal members of the human family. International human rights law does not exclude human embryos from the equal right to life upheld in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments. There is no genetic difference between an embryo inside or outside the body. The right to life, which is inalienable, does not change according to location.

"Although it would be unethical for embryos outside the body to be implanted, it is permission for IVF, and not the Roches' estrangement, which has created this tragedy in which their children will never be born. Any legislation, therefore, which may be passed following this case should ban IVF."

Monday, 14 December 2009

Cherie Blair has given an interview to Tatler, the society magazine, in which she has again attacked the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual ethics. Mrs Blair told Tatler:

"The Church says that sex is not just for procreation and does allow the natural form of contraception. Personally, I think it is better to go for contraception that works, which is quite different from abortion. Controlling our fertility has been one of the key reasons why women have been able to progress and in Africa it can mean the difference between life and death, in preventing the spread of HIV. I hope the position of the Church will change on this."

Mrs Blair's comments are wrong in so many ways. Mrs Blair says that: "The Church says that sex is not just for procreation". Yes, the Church teaches sex is not just for procreation but it also teaches that every conjugal act must be open to the transmission of life.

Mrs Blair claims that: "The Church...allow[s] the natural form of contraception". In fact, the Church does not allow any form of contraception. Natural fertility awareness (e.g. the Billings Ovulation Method) is not contraception because, unlike contraception, nothing is done to close the conjugal act to the transmission of life.

Mrs Blair says that: "It is better to go for contraception that works." In fact, the practice of natural fertility awareness (e.g. the Billings Ovulation Method) is more effective than contraception in spacing births (better than 99%, according to clinical trials listed on the Billings Centre Canada website).

Mrs Blair claims that: "Contraception...is quite different from abortion." The Church teaches that contraception and abortion are chained together. As the late Pope John Paul II taught in Evangelium Vitae (13):

"[T]he negative values inherent in the "contraceptive mentality" which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation [to abortion] when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected ... The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious."

Is Mrs Blair trying to persuade us that she is unaware of the consequential relationship of surgical abortion to so-called contraception? Also, most birth control drugs and devices can also act abortifaciently - contraception with abortifacient back-up. If she is against surgical abortion, as distinct from chemical abortion, where is the evidence of her campaigning against surgical abortion? In fact, Mrs Blair has supported of some of the world's major pro-abortion forces:

At the annual Labour party conference in September 2005, Mrs Blair celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Family Planning Association (fpa), the UK branch of IPPF, helping to cut a special birthday cake (and pictured here offering a condom to the camera-man.) Both IPPF and FPA endorsed the failed campaign to remove the Holy See from the United Nations.

on her website, Mrs Blair lists Human Rights Watch as one of the charities she supports. Human Rights Watch is one of the most radically pro-abortion international NGOs (non-governmental organisations).

On a page in the Women of the World section of her website, Mrs Blair says: "The [United Nations] Convention [on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) ... is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive rights of women". "Reproductive rights" is a term commonly used to include abortion on demand. Is Mrs Blair seriously trying to tell us to believe that she is unaware of that very well-known fact?

Mrs Blair claims that: "Controlling our fertility [through contraception] has been one of the key reasons why women have been able to progress." In contrast, Pope Benedict, in his latest encyclical Caritas in Veritate, has emphasised that the message of Humanae vitae:

is fundamental to achieving authentic human development

"delineat[es] the fully human meaning of the development that the Church proposes"

"indicates the strong links between life ethics and social ethics"

"essential to the context for the advancement of the culture of life."

Mrs Blair claims that: "[I]n Africa [contraception] can mean the difference between life and death, in preventing the spread of HIV". Indeed - those countries where condom use is promoted have higher rates of HIV than those countries where abstinence and fidelity are promoted, such as Uganda and The Philippines.

Mrs Blair says: "I hope the position of the Church will change on this [contraception]." Mrs Blair is being disingenuous here. She is not waiting for the Church's position to change - she is working to change the Church's position, by her own admission. In her chapter for the book "Why I am still a Catholic", Mrs Blair writes:

"Of course, like many Catholics in this country, I have doubts about some of the positions taken by the Church as an institution - for example, on contraception or the role of women. But I am not one of those who believe that the only response is to walk away because you have a different viewpoint. I have been taught that you should stay and try to change things. It’s like the Labour party in the 1980s. I wasn’t happy with the way it was going, so I tried to help change it from within. Thankfully, we won that battle. And though the pace of change in the Catholic Church can seem slow, I believe that there are very many people in this country - and not just in the laity - who are convinced of the need for it. That message, however, is not yet fully accepted in the Vatican ... Women still do not get due respect in the Church which is why, in the opinion of many people, it get some things wrong, like its teaching on contraception."

In fact, a big, absolute "yes" to the genuine rights, health and fertility of women is behind the Church's "no" to contraception. Many of the women reformers of social standards in the 19th century pointed out that contraception results in the objectification and exploitation of women by men. One would be forgiven for thinking that Mrs Blair is more interested in promoting the culture of death than the Catholic Church's culture of life.

The High Court in Belfast has again ruled against government guidance on abortion. Last month, Lord Justice Girvan ordered Northern Ireland's health department to withdraw its guidance on abortion because it was misleading in two key areas. In a subsequent hearing this morning, Lord Justice Girvan not only confirmed his original judgment, but explained that the guidance should be withdrawn in full and not just in part. The case had been brought by SPUC.

Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland, who was at this morning's hearing, told the media today:

"Despite the arguments against the complete withdrawal of the guidance, the department itself made it clear when it was published in March, that its purpose was to explain the law on abortion in Northern Ireland and how it relates to clinical practice. It would make no sense to re-issue the same document and simply leave out two major sections, on counselling and the right of medical personnel not to participate in abortions. Allowing the document to remain in part would have been seriously misleading and may have resulted in grave injustices taking place. We are very glad that will not happen.

"Both counselling and the right to non-participation are central to clinical practice and the implementation of the law. It's extraordinary that the department should have taken the unusual step of asking a judge to reconsider his order and an award of costs once a decision had been reached. It was no surprise, therefore, that Lord Justice Girvan did not change his original decision to order the withdrawal of the whole guidance document. It was because of the significance of these issues and seriousness of the flaws in the guidance that he awarded the costs SPUC incurred in bringing the case. This vindicates our initial criticism of the guidance.

"The department's response to the ruling has been disappointing, but I'm sure that both the Northern Ireland Assembly's all-party pro-life group and the Stormont health committee will now be eager to work with the department to address the deficiencies in the guidance identified by this case."

Beth Kendrick (pictured) is a pro-life counsellor for Helpers of God's Precious Infants (HGPI) in Sydney. Whilst she seeks to counsel clients of Preterm Foundation, Sydney's oldest abortion clinic, her colleagues pray continuously across the street. Their prayer and witness began ten years ago - every Saturday morning throughout the year. As Christmas approaches this week, HGPI will keep daily vigil, hoping for and achieving from time to time the occasional "turn-around" on the part of a client.

I had the privilege of joining the Helpers of God's Precious Infants over the weekend (see picture right). I am in Sydney with Josephine, my wife, to attend our son's graduation (Paul) at Campion College. Paul has been a regular attender of the Saturday vigils and it was great to be able to join with him, especially as we approach Christ's birthday. As a Catholic, I wonder how many images of the unborn Christ can be saved by the courageous witness of groups like HGPI in Sydney and their counterparts in Britain and across the world. It's important, I believe, for members of pro-life groups to join with each other in our various work and respective projects. As Pope John Paul II famously said in his pro-life encyclical Evangelium Vitae, what is urgently call for is a "united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of life" (EV 95)

Sunday, 13 December 2009

You will recall (see my blog-post) that SPUC organised a youth vigil on Wednesday outside the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, as the court considered a challenge to Ireland's constitutional protection of unborn children. Young people representing Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Romania held placards outside the court reading in different European languages: "Europe needs children not abortion", "Hands off Ireland's pro-life laws" and "Abortion kills children". The vigil was organised by Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland. Here are some more photos of the vigil:

Alison's challenge, which is being backed by the Christian Legal Centre, is directed to the new Supreme Court, which has replaced the House of Lords judicial committee (the Law Lords sitting as a court) as the UK's highest court. Alison's submission calls on the Supreme Court "to reconsider and hear fresh argument on the case of Purdy", due to the apparent bias of Lord Phillips. Lord Phillips was the senior judge in the Purdy case and is now the president of the supreme court. He had given an interview to The Telegraph after the judgment in which he expressed personal sympathy for people seeking assisted suicide

The House of Lords judgment in favour of Debbie Purdy has now led to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) drafting guidance which undermines the right to life of disabled people. The DPP is conducting a public consultation on the draft guidance, which closes next Wednesday (16 December). SPUC has produced a briefing to help you respond to the consultation.

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

A youth vigil was held this morning outside the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, as the court considered a challenge to Ireland's constitutional protection of unborn children.

Young people representing Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Romania held placards outside the court reading: "Europe needs children not abortion", "Hands off Ireland's pro-life laws" and "Abortion kills children". The vigil was organised by Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland.

The court is considering the A, B, & C v Ireland case, which the Irish pro-abortion lobby is using to claim that Ireland's ban on abortion violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

One of the young people taking part in the vigil, Olivier Jarry from France, said outside the court:

"Ireland is one of the only countries to have resisted abortion. The people of Ireland have voted against abortion, yet now there is a danger that the European institutions will change Ireland's constitution."

Another young person, Anne-Catherine Kegelin, also of France, said:

"No one has the right to kill another innocent person. We are demonstrating for human rights in front of the human rights building. There can be no rights if there is not the right to life. All rights depend on the right to life. There is no difference between a grandfather of 90 and an unborn child, only time."

"We travelled to Strasbourg to represent the majority of Irish people who are pro-life and who don't want abortion in Ireland. This issue should be decided upon by the Irish people and not imposed undemocratically by a European court. We stand here in solidarity with the children whose lives are threatened by the possible outcome of the court's ruling."

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Catholics celebrate today the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This feast celebrates the Catholic teaching that Mary, Jesus' mother, was conceived free from original sin. Pictured is a representation of St Anne, Mary's mother, pregnant with Mary. (Some Catholics on the SPUC HQ staff attend Mass on weekdays at the nearby St Anne's church).

As we know from science, in normal human reproduction pregnancy begins with the conception of an embryo through fertilisation in the fallopian tube. Pro-abortionists claim that killing newly-conceived embryonic children after fertilisation but before implantation in the womb is not abortion. They claim that pregnancy doesn't start until implantation, and they make this claim in order to exempt the morning-after pill from laws restricting abortion. The American College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists even went so far as to redefine not just pregnancy but also conception, declaring that: "Conception is the implantation of the blastocyst. It is not synonymous with fertilization."

Such shameless shifting of the goal-posts is a commonplace tactic of the anti-life lobby. Unfortunately some Catholics, anxious to compromise with the secular world, have adopted this false thinking. Yet, as Dana Rosemary Scallon, the former Irish politician, reminded Irish voters in the 2002 abortion referendum, Catholics celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, not the feast of the Immaculate Implantation!

The British government's providing access to children with abortion and abortifacients and preparing them for sexual activity is the worst development in Britain since the passing of the Abortion Act. Citizens whose children attend both faith and non-faith schools must resist the wicked government policy which robs our children of their innocence and which kills our grandchildren. The government's proposals for compulsory sex education, if not blocked, will result in a massive promotion of embryo-killing drugs and devices in schools, including Catholic schools.

It is therefore incumbent upon the Catholic Education Service (CES) in England and Wales to reverse its general support for compulsory sex education. The CES should also stop welcoming Connexions into Catholic schools. Connexions is a government agency which is committed to giving schoolchildren, under the age of 16, access to abortion and abortifacients without parental knowledge or permission. Connexions' advisers are trained to tell young people that they can obtain abortion and abortifacients without parental knowledge or consent.I suggest that on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Catholics make reparation for the CES's complicity in the government's anti-life/anti-family agenda by reading and responding to SPUC's campaign alert.

Monday, 7 December 2009

Today's Telegraph and Daily Mail report that, according to official statistics, over 5,000 under-20s had abortions in 2008. The figures were revealed in response to a parliamentary question by Anne Milton, a shadow health minister.

It is refreshing to read Mrs Milton's reported comment on abortion:

"Abortions can be incredibly traumatic for women and terminating an unwanted pregnancy can have a damaging effect on mental health."

One of Mrs Milton's proposed solutions to the revolving door of teenage repeat abortions is improved government information on contraception. Yet, as Dr Judith Bury, former director of Edinburgh's Brook Advisory Centre, an abortion referral agency, admitted:

"There is overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what you might expect, the availability of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate."(1) "Sex Education for Bureaucrats", The Scotsman, 29 June, 1981

I agree, however, with Mrs Milton that the phenomenon of repeat abortions among teenagers is a consequence of the government's teenage pregnancy and sexual health strategy. As Christine Hudson of SPUC Plymouth wrote for this blog last month:

"Abortion and the abortifacient morning-after pill are the lynchpins of the government’s teenage pregnancy strategy. The aim is to rid children and young women of unplanned pregnancies. These pregnancies are the result of sexual activity encouraged by government and our society, with little or no attention paid to the age of consent."

The government's proposals for compulsory sex education will result in even more promotion of abortion in schools. If the Conservative party opposition wishes to halt the rise in teenage abortions, then it must block the government's proposals, contained in the Children, Schools and Families bill. Likewise, the Catholic Education Service (CES) in England and Wales must reverse its general support for compulsory sex education.

"The 3rd International Youth Pro-Life Conference promises to be better than ever. This year we will be exploring the concept of personhood with respect to abortion, euthanasia and embryo experimentation. This residential weekend will include a programme of expert international speakers in the fields of Bioethics, Philosophy, Human Rights, Post Abortion Trauma and much more. As well as listening to excellent speakers, the delegates will be able to converse with pro-life organisations from all over the world.

"This conference is an excellent opportunity for young people from across the globe to network and socialise, make friends and empower one another to spread the pro- life message. The cost for the weekend is only £80 which includes food, accommodation and conference fees.

"If you are aged between 16 and 35 years and would like to attend this fun-filled weekend, please contact Lucy McCully on lucy@spucconference.org.uk or + 44(0)141 221 2094. Please also visit www.spucconference.org.uk where you will be able to book via PayPal shortly.

John Smeaton

About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 39 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to SPUC's staff, supporters and advisers for their help to me in researching, writing and producing this blog.

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